NOVA Engineering & Environmental - Kennesaw, Georgia

Erin B.

Hannah and Leah have been such incredible individuals to work alongside as representatives for Nova!

Jared S.

These guys do inspections for the city of Atlanta and they don’t know anything about building or code. It’s fascinating that 1)Atlanta is so inept that they can’t even hire their own inspection force and 2) that they found arguably the worst company to do it for them. I’ve had to walk 2(!) different inspectors through code to show them they were wrong. All while wasting my time and slowing my project down

Robert L.

I've been coordinating with Nova for over 3 months as the sole point of contact for a private provider plan review. I deal with two, and only two people at Nova. Their titles are "Project Manager" and "Project Coordinator." After dozens of phone conversations and emails, they still don't know who I am.

Each and every time I call and speak with either the PM or the PC, I would say "Hi, this is Robert Luong, I'd like to touch base on …. " I'd speak 2 or 3 sentences, at which time they would interrupt and say "wait a minute, who is this?" I would thereupon have to go into my robot mode and speak slowly:

1. My name is Robert Luong.

2. I am the GC and sole point of contact for a client of yours by the name of ____ at a shopping center named ____, located in ___County.

3. Your company is conducting a private provider plan review for said Client.

4. In my capacity as that Client's representative, I'd like to inquire on the status of the plan review.

At some point long into my remedial self-introduction, they would say something along the lines of “One moment, let me look that up." This agonizing routine occurs with both the PM and the PC.

Sometimes, I call the PM's cellphone number. When he calls back, he says "Hello, I'm returning a missed call." This tells me that he has never bothered to program my number into his cellphone. Obviously, why would he if he hasn't bothered to remember who I am?

I chose to give the above example not because remembering who I am is per se important. Rather, the failure to remember basic things such as who your client is, or the failure to associate individual representatives with the clients they represent, is an indication of other deep-rooted organizational issues that could affect performance.

Given time constraints, I will only give one more example.

EXAMPLE #2:

· Nova approved my engineer's plans during the week ending on Sept 2nd. The PC requested 4 hard copies to be signed, sealed, and delivered to their office.

· I hustled to get Tenant-side engineer to overnight the hard copies to NOVA, which copies arrived at 10AM Friday, Sept 2nd, so that NOVA could submit the permit application before the 3-day weekend.

· On Thursday, Sept 8th, I called the PM and asked how the submission went. The PM drew a blank, and referred me to the PC.

· The PC eventually called and gave a bizarre excuse, leading me to conclude that she simply forgot, and that the plans sat in the mail room unopened for 7 days. More troubling is the fact that Nova hasn't implemented a rudimentary project management system that prevents human errors (e.g., forgetfulness) from causing things to fall through the cracks.

· Today is September 19th, 18 days after the plans were approved, and they still have not submitted my permit application.

· There are many reasons and excuses, but the most notable one is this: The PM told me last week that the PC would be out of the office until Sept 19th. He said he would get back with me to let me know if anyone else is available to submit the application while the PC is out.

· For a company with hundreds of employees, do they not have a system in place to continue functioning when a mid-level admin person is absent for a week? It's not as if the PC were physically taking the application to the county herself. She simply assigns it to a runner, and the runner drops it off. So what they are saying is, no one, including the PM, is competent enough to assign the drop-off to a runner in absence of the PC.

Lastly, I don't know why Nova would hire people, give them titles such as Project Manager, yet not require that they be PMP-Certified and not put systems in place for uncertified staffers to follow so as to prevent the most basic tasks from falling through the cracks.

UPDATE: My plans were eventually marked as submitted to Pasco County, Florida on October 4, 2022--- 34 days after they were approved by Nova's Licensed Plan Reviewer, 32 days after Nova received the hard copies of the signed and sealed plans for submission.

Hannah G.

Great company!

No P.

Their drivers, in company trucks, have road rage and cut me off.

the O. A. O.

Easy to get to and had plenty of room to back in and if arriving early they have overnight truck parking

Demetrius K.

Great Engineering firm that delivers the highest quality of expertise and professionalism in and around Atlanta and throughout the state of Georgia!

Rebecca G.

Delivered a load..easy in and out..